Alice Neel, Andy Warhol and the Blue Line

Why can’t I stop looking at Alice Neel’s paintings? 

To say that they make me uncomfortable is an understatement.  I think it’s the awkwardness of her figures that makes me cringe. Fingers of the hands are sometimes at strange or impossible angles, the eyes uneven. Maybe it’s seeing children and baby with their legs apart, a boy baby foreshortened so his penis looks larger. I think it’s all of this, but this is also what makes them so vulnerable and so human. And then there is the use of paint, so masterfully done. I can feel her pushing the paint around with smooth brushstrokes like icing, so delicious. Then I look at the outlines, the blue lines around the hand.

I feel a little disappointed because I only got to see the show at the Metropolitan Museum once before it ended. I took some snapshots of her work to study them some more. 

Here are a few of my favorite images from the Alice Neel exhibit @metmuseum.  These images are sections of the paintings. I love Andy's face in the first one. The painting was done after he had been shot. You can see his stitches and a corset in the full painting, but what I love is the calm peaceful expression on his face, not at all awkward. 

The second section of a painting is a hand with blue outline. The painting was of 2 men, entitled “Men from Rutgers” I  love the way she used blue to outline and emphasize the hand. Why does this work so well? The blue lines against the warm skin tones make the skin feel alive.  

She is not the first artist to do this. Van Gogh and Gauguin also used line in this way. ”Cloisonnism” separates the colors as in stained glass. But Alice Neels’ use of line is different. She uses color. The colored line does not just separate but contrasts and changes the colors next to the line. 

As an artist myself, I am always learning from other artists.  There is so much to learn from Alice Neel.

Does anyone else have such a strong reaction to her work?  Let me know in the comments.

Andy Warhol, 1980 Section